Interview with Terminal Filth

Chat with Terminal Filth, crust punk / stenchcore band from Berlin

In 2022 they put out a crazy album ‘Death Driven‘, one of the best of the year, and in 2024 they return with ‘Traces Towards Oblivion‘, a new mini-LP released by Agipunk (which we really liked and talked about here). We are about to interview Berlin-based Terminal Filth, a band that as the name suggests takes inspiration from the legendary Deviated Instinct. Let’s give the word, then, to this band that is making so much noise thanks to their devastating prowess both live and in the studio.

Radio Punk: Hello! We welcome you to our ‘zine. Tell us a bit about yourselves: the genesis of Terminal Filth, if you had other bands before, if you are or were part of other projects…

Terminal Filth: Thank you very much for your questions and for allowing us to speak a little bit about Terminal Filth. The band was born shortly before the beginning of the pandemics. We started practicing around October 2019: the idea was originally to play a noisy sort of d-beat raw punk a la Napalm Raid, but after a few rehearsal-sessions we realized that our common efforts were taking us elsewhere… from there onward, we let ourselves be surprised by the outcome and by the reception of the music.

Yes, indeed, we all were part of other bands before: three of us played together in a Berlin based punk band called Pestchords for a few years, Christian played guitar and bass in many German bands (Karbeat, Kotzkrampf, just to name a couple) at least since the late nineties, early 2000. Isa was part of Nocturnal Scum, an international crust punk act from Berlin, and of Kriminal, a furious d-beat assault (both bands are not active anymore). Some of us are also currently involved in other bands, such as Speedkobra, and the newborn Sewerrage… All in all, although each of us has been or is involved in different projects (parallel or not), Terminal Filth has remained our focus for the last few years.

Radio Punk: How did you meet in Berlin and what is it like being a crust punk band in this city? From the outside it looks like a very active city both musically and politically, is that really the case? Are there a lot of spaces to play and does it allow you to be connected and play a lot outside the capital?

Terminal Filth: Berlin is a city with a very lively scene, and it is surely an awesome place to start a band and to begin moving around in the diy underground. Many collectives throughout the city are relentlessly organizing gigs, events, demonstrations, putting a lot of energy and sweat to keep alive places and venues. Sometimes one wonders how this shithole of a city can live up to its own reputation – and sometimes it’s indeed just a matter of perception. It’s all but an ideal place to be sure, and arguably one (and to mention just one) of the issues connected with such a vibrant scene is that one risks being stuck in a bubble of apparent security that doesn’t represent the complexity of the surrounding reality at all. Therefore, it is important for us to critically question the “scene” we come from, without being forgetful of how much we owe to people, places, crews – not least because that allowed us to meet us. (Which by the way happened as it always does: something clicks among people, a strong friendship develops almost instantly, consolidating through time into a kinship.) It is important to add that Germany has a lot to offer also elsewhere, and not only in cities such as Leipzig, Dresden, Hamburg, but also in smaller, countryside areas, where the seeds of sedition are no less fertile and ready to explode.

Radio Punk: Your new work is impressive, about 20 minutes deflagrating and imperious. What we ask is for you to tell us about its composition, its themes (since you mentioned astronomer Carl Sagan) and what you wanted to add or how you wanted to differ from previous works.

Terminal Filth: We can hardly say anything about the composition process, mostly because it’s something unknown to ourselves, or rather that happens unbeknownst to ourselves – there where the unconscious meets magic. Someone comes with an idea, a melody stuck in the mind, an obsessive thought, and by working together, attempt after attempt, repetition after repetition, or by sheer wonder, something happens. In retrospect, we can surely identify a few moments in which we realized something was happening in front of our eyes. “Through extinction”, for instance, came together in just an afternoon while we were jamming together in a torrid summer afternoon in Hadmersleben (close to Magdeburg)… Also, in retrospect, we can see a thematic and stylistic pattern developing from the two releases (actually three, if we count the demo) we published: with this last record, I guess we tried to give form to a soundscape, to a vision of the Earth from the border of the solar system, and to manifest through sounds a form of anguish and devastation by imagining the planet in total ruins and abandoned. That’s of course one possible explanation. The music is out there for the others to be heard and received; we don’t feel too comfortable with the idea of imposing an interpretative pattern. To answer your point regarding Carl Sagan: he was indisputably an important inspiration. His writings have no doubt nourished the vision and its manifestation, but what we tried to do is to take a step forward towards the catastrophe, the oblivion, and beyond, to see new things with the eyes of music and to touch them with its finger.

Radio Punk: The artwork of your works is incredible, would you like to tell us a little about their meaning and your relationship with Stiv who created them?

Terminal Filth: Stiv has far more merits than he would be willing to personally admit, even under torture! But since he’s a close friend and we don’t want him to kick our asses, we will keep it short and on point. His incredible artwork is no less than a part of our music, materialized and made visible after the music itself. With his pen he could give visual texture to what we were trying to say without images, to that nightmarish void murmuring in the abyss. The collaboration with him started as we were developing the artwork for the “Death Driven” LP, and so far, it has been absolutely enriching for us. As a matter of fact, we couldn’t help but drawing further inspiration from his own work!

Also, we would like to add that other great artists entrusted us with their creations and with their time. Our friend Csaba realized an incredible subject visible on our backpatches, a nightmarish vision of a death-driven-messiah populating our lyrics, a prophet of death looking straight into us with empty eyes! Furthermore, our friend Rebecca (drummer of the furious Electric Masochist) realized the first artwork for our demo-tape, literally baptizing Terminal Filth in ink and blood with a chimeric image of anguish.

Radio Punk: Still on the album theme, how did you get in touch with Agipunk and what is it like working with this label?

Terminal Filth: Koppa is another person that, just as Stiv, made our adventure possible. If I remember correctly, I reached out to him in the first months of 2022, asking if he was interested in publishing our record. It was a long shot, we were basically a newborn, unknown band, and we remember being very unsure whether he could like it or not… but as it turns out. We couldn’t have been more excited as we read that Koppa was interested in publishing “Death Driven” through Agipunk. In addition to that, he also provided great suggestions to give the final touch to the artwork and to the music. After such a good, productive experience, we were quite thrilled at idea of pursuing our path together.

Radio Punk: Stepping out of the musical dimension a bit, tell us a bit about yourselves: who are Terminal Filth outside the band, in everyday life? What are your passions, hobbies, jobs, etc.?

Terminal Filth: Ah, in that case there is not much we would like to say, in many respects we are four unexceptional persons blessed with the exceptional gift of friendship and with the chance of playing music. We all take part in the daily struggle from a very, very privileged perspective, and sometimes we forget what a luxury it is to be able to play music, to perform and to travel to do so! Next one!

Radio Punk: You have played in different contexts and in different cities, what are the experiences you remember most fondly? Are you planning any more tours, maybe outside Europe? And more generally, what’s in your future?

Terminal Filth: Many fond memories, every concert is an event per se for us, regardless of the outcome! From the first one in the distant September 2020 – a small gig in Poland organized for a few friends during a motorbike ride-out – to the last tour with Fractured: we’ve been blessed with tons of fun and with great friendships! Surely the highlights of our journey have been the first tour with Motron from Italy, and the tour with Fractured. The bond we created with these crews is simply incredible – although very hard to express through words…

We are currently planning a tour in north America for the next fall, and we will share more details asap.

Radio Punk: Back to the music part, nerdy question: given the dark, high-impact sounds, we ask what instrumentation and setup do you use?

Terminal Filth: I’m sorry to disappoint you again but also from that point of view, not really much can be said. We have a very instinctive and untechnical approach to music, and we tend to keep what we like, without being too cerebral. Distortion pedals, voice effects, choruses, amplifiers, there is nothing really out of the ordinary. We allow ourselves to take as much inspiration as we want from bands we love and admire (Stormcrow, Skaven, Deviated Instict, Bolt Thrower, Black Curse, and many more) and try to hide it by reinventing old, great ideas with our own twist – which is basically the chemistry that we share in the practice room and out of it. The sound that you may hear on the records is also the result of a very experienced (and patient) sound engineer, our friend Benno, who recorded both our full-lengths, and of Jack Control, who impeccably mastered them. The rest is sheer luck and trial-and-error fun. We like to think that, as it is naturally part of the game, we don’t really have much control on what we are doing ‘soundwise,’ and that is also a great deal of fun, especially when the result turns out to be good!

Radio Punk: On a political level, is there anything you would particularly like to communicate? Is there any struggle you care most about? Do you believe that we can actually change this world or that it’s too late and we’ll end up cursing ourselves like the final scene of Planet of the Apes?

Terminal Filth: We like to think that we have our own take to political issues. That doesn’t mean at all that we are “apolitical,” of course, but rather that we try to address political issues through a “politics of the subject,” in other words, through an existential perspective, without losing ourselves too much in slogans and ready-made easy solutions. Perhaps there is too much confidence in the idea that there are easy ways to deal with and solve complex problems. That is a mere illusion, it means to reduce the complexity of the human being to a plan. Complex problems and conflicts require a critical position and it’s impossible to find an answer to political issues without understanding the veritable complex context in which they express themselves.

Radio Punk: Given Germany’s past and given the anti-German ‘movement’, how is the situation in Berlin and the whole country regarding the Palestinian issue? And what do you think about it?

Terminal Filth: We see the reality of the situation surrounding us, to be sure. And the situation is dramatic, to say the least. Regardless of what people say, however, the issue is indeed very complex. Once the slogans are shouted and the flags are raised, the question remains: “how can we practically solve the conflict?”

Here in Germany the question is ridiculously polarized and divided. The Antideutsche movement is a parody, a signal of a paternalistic blindness and incapability of criticizing a government. The German government is, on its own, silencing any form of protest and critical thinking, of support and solidarity. This is not the signal of a healthy society – if there has ever been any such a thing – or of a collective seriously confronting itself with the issue. On top of that, too often people try to be “right” against a counterpart in what seems to be a giant and sterile talk show, rather than staying on the side of humanity and of the victims. In front of this level of barbarity and blindness, we need to consider new productive ways to break the circle of violence and destruction.

Radio Punk: After this roundup of serious questions, we close by asking if you can tell us about a grotesque and absurd event that happened to you in your concert experience. Thanks for answering our questions, see you soon!

Terminal Filth: I think one of the most grotesque and yet funny situations we ever experienced was in a concert in a Wagenplatz in Hannover, towards the end of summer 2023: suddenly, just like 20 minutes before the beginning of our gig, our singer started feeling sick, nauseating, and with a bad diarrhea. Conflicted whether the band should cancel or try notwithstanding to play the set, we were able to persuade our singer to ingurgitate a mix of pills provided by nearby standing friends, in the hope that the result would be catastrophic… With great disappointment of all the other members of the band, who were just hoping to see the singer shitting himself and puking everywhere on the stage, the mix turned out to work well, and the singer, that bastard, didn’t spill a drop of shit, ruining the show for everyone.

Credit photo (b/w): Tanya